Pokerstars MTT and SNG Rake Analysis

Hey guys, thanks again. When a few of you mentioned MTTs it got me interested. I wanted to know how much Pokerstars make in Rake from different MTTs. That way I can plan which tournaments I'm going to play or avoid. So I figured it all out. Now I'm sharing it with everyone. I know it's going to help me, so I hope you all get something out of it too. The images look fuzzy but when you click on them they are crystal clear  Using this data, which one's do you think are the best ones to go for and why? 


All the best, 

Rage 

iPoker Rake Analysis

I was really interested this evening to see how iPoker compares to Pokerstars in terms of Rake on SNGs. The results were pretty shocking. Take a look at what Ladbrokes charges players. I'm sure this is the same rake model on all iPoker skins. Can anyone confirm that?




Ladbrokes Poker - iPoker Network





So if you're grinding an iPoker client, don't play below €5 or you're just lining their pockets!

Rage

Pokerstars SNG Rake Analysis

Hi guys, I did a study on Rake at Pokerstars Sit & Go Tournaments (Full Ring). I'm just sharing what I found. You will hear many Cash regs talk about Rake and game selection. SNG players need to be similarly careful, as fees erode prize pools and your ROI (Return on Investment).


So let's get into it!


Ok. Let's say you play $3.50 SNGs. On Stars, $3.16 goes into the Prize pool and $0.34 is retained by the site as their fee. Nine players pay in a total of (9 x $3.50) = $31.50. So a total of (9 x $3.16) = $28.44 goes into the prize pool. At the same time (9 x $0.34) = $3.04 is retained by stars. This is the rent (if you like) for them to host the game. If we quickly work out a percentage (Entry Fees / Total Buyins), we find that Pokerstars keeps ($3.04/$31.50) = 9.7%. We will call this the 'Rake' of the tournament. 


Briefly checking the lowest buyin of $0.50, we find that stars retains $0.06 of this and adds $0.44 from each player to the prize pool. Which means the rake is ($0.06 / $0.50) = 12%, which is a good bit higher than 9.7% on the 3-fiddys. I don't want this post to be unnecessarily long so I worked it all out. Here's what I found:






So what does this mean?

For me personally, it means that I avoid playing $0.50 and $1.50 SNGs like the plague. 12% disappearing from the total prize pool is not something I enjoy. Obviously we don't all have the bankroll for $7 and $15 SNGs. I'd recommend rolls of $300 and $600 for these respectively (At a minimum). But for most of us I think $3.50 is a nice compromise at only 9.7% rake and needs only about a $140 bankroll (40 x $3.50)*.



In Conclusion

If you you want to be a serious regular SNG grinder, and maximise your long term ROI, then I would not recommend playing SNGs below $7. You could throw in some $3.50 without worrying too much. But there's a huge difference between the 12% rake at $1.50 and 7.4% rake at $15. That's nearly 5%, which for some players is whole winrate. So whatever site you play on, make sure you know the rake. Some sites (Particularly the Sports betting ones) anything on the iPoker network should be checked carefully. I was playing on a similar site and found they were raking 15% of the buyin which is obscene. So choose your site carefully. 



One disclaimer: Just because the rake is lower at the higher levels, doesn't mean you are ready to play there. You can't just move up to $15 SNG from $1.50 because you're getting a better Rake deal. Both YOU And your Bankroll must be ready. Opponents will be tougher, and therefore your winrate will go down. So what you save in Rake you might lose in winrate. For beginners playing at $0.50/$1.50, you can give $3.50 a try, save some Rake without worrying too much. Good experience. But maybe avoid $7.00 and higher until you are ready for tough competition. But if you are an experienced player then I encourage you to get a bigger bankroll, move up and save yourself some money. 


Hope you enjoyed the article and got something out of it. Please feel free to ask anything in the comments below.


Give em hell out there,
Rage

95,000 Hands Winrate

Hi Grinders,

I'm back after a long break. Nearly 6 months. I needed to get out and concentrate on life for a while. Got a lot of stuff done, caught up with friends and family, and allowed the burnout to subside ... so now it feels good to be back at the tables. Clear mind.


Anyway onto Poker. I've been digging through my database from last year and I have a good sample of hands to discuss. So I'm posting up my stats for my last 95,000 hands. These were played mostly at NL2 exclusively on Pokerstars. I took several shots at NL5, NL10 and NL25. I multi-tabled between 3 and 4 at once. I concentrated on making good decisions and not tilting. The sudden rise of my redline after 70,000 hands was after a major leak busting session. The focus of this review was to identify passivity and weakness in my play and destroy it. My winrate over this sample was 5.5bb/100.


I am asking for your very expert comments and recommendations. All feedback welcome. How did I do? Should I move up?


I'm looking forward to getting back to grinding. Thanks.


Rage

Lot's going on this week. Still working on my book. Will be uploading material from journals as soon as I can figure out what's wrong with my scanner! Watch this space. Have moved up from NL2 to NL5 finally. I wanted to wait until my bankroll got a bit fatter first. Here's my graph for the past 50,000+ Hands.

This week I'm concentrating on 3Bet pots and SPR strategies. I'll have more soon!

R

Connector Leaks - Part 4 - Suited 3-Gappers

Now for the final part of this series. We look at hands which are suited and also have straight potential. In this case the hands have a gap of 3 between ranks. Let's get into it.


Suited Connectors (3 Gappers)
---------------------------------

(A,5)
A 2 3 4 5
Ace-5 Suited can make the nut flush and can only fill 1 type of straight.


(6,2)
2 3 4 5 6
Six-two Suited can make a Six-high flush and can only fill 1 type of straight.


(7,3)
3 4 5 6 7
Seven-Three Suited can make a Seven-high flush and can only fill 1 type of straight.

`    
`   ` 
`   ` `
`   ` `
`   ` `
`   `  `
    ` `
     `


(Q,8)
8 9 T J Q
Queen-Eight Suited can make a Queen-high flush and can only fill 1 type of straight.


(K,9)
9 T J Q K
King-Nine Suited can make a King-high flush and can only fill 1 type of straight.


(A,T)
T J Q K A
Ace-Ten Suited can make an Ace-high flush and can only fill 1 type of straight.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Conclusion:
All suited connectors with a gap of 3 between ranks, have exactly 1 way to make a straight. Regardless of what 3-gapped hand it is.


Taking action:
This a very straight forward post. You can see from looking at the hands above that there is no difference between A5s and Q8s in terms of ability to make a straight. The real power in these hands lies in their high card power, ability to hit a flush and to complete a concealed straight later in the hand. I don't personally play these hands very often. When I do play them I limp into multiway pots behind several limpers and try to see a cheap flop. But in general I'm folding these hands (Except A5s which is a decent equity hand to bluff with). Occasionally I will use K9s and Q8s for 3Bet bluffs as they have decent equity when called. But I am far more likely to take this line with a suited connector or 1-2 gapper. It depends on who I'm facing and what the situation at the table is.


------------------------
So that's it for this short course on plugging suited connector leaks. I hope you enjoyed reading it. I had fun putting it together. If you have any questions please feel free to post them below. You can also tweet me at the links above. Good luck at the tables.


Ragequit

Update

Was on a big heater last night, climbed out of the slump and then some! Onwards and up.